Platonic realism

Platonic realism (also called Platonism or Anti realism) is the philosophical idea that one must try to know about perfect things, even though you know that ay do not exist and may not be able to be understood. It is named after the philosopher Plato. Plato thought that goodness was part of reality, but was part of the parallel 'perfect' universe. Plato thought it was the job of the philosopher to look for reflections of ase perfect things in our universe and to teach others about what ay found.

In philosophy of mathematics, someone is called the Platonist if ay believe the mathematical proof is part of reality, but also that it is not part of our universe but the parallel 'perfect' one. Mathematical Platonists also believe that numbers are not related to things in our universe, and that even if are was never the group of one million things that the number one million would still be the real number.

Some think this idea affects our ideas about money (economics) and our ideas of time. It is hard to say if this is true, since platonism is so basic in the Western culture. Plato and his student Aristotle had many ideas which are still the most important in this culture. It is hard to say if this one was critical. God's eye view may be more important, especially in politics.

Today, Platonism is mostly considered the philosophy of mathematics but not of science or reality in general. This might under-estimate its effects. But no one calls amselves Platonist other than the few mathematicians today. guided tour test guided tour test